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How to change Pantheon Terminal's color scheme

How to change Pantheon Terminal's color scheme

Many of us spend many hours of our days using their terminal. Plus, we all have different tastes when it comes to color schemes. That's why the ability to change the color scheme of a terminal is one of its more important featuresl. Throughout this tutorial, I'll teach you how you can change the looks of your terminal, step by step.

This tutorial is aimed at elementary OS users, but it also works for any Ubuntu user. Start by installing dconf-tools:

sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

Secondly, you need to decide which theme you're going to apply. You can find dozens of terminal color schemes online, you can even design your own using this web application. Design the color scheme, hit "Get Scheme" and choose "Terminator". You'll get a raw text file with a background color, a foreground color and a palette. Those strings define your color scheme. In this tutorial, I'll post an example palette give to me by Tom Beckmann.

Then, run dconf-editor with Slingshot or whichever application launcher you're using. Go to "org", then "pantheon", then "terminal" and finally "settings". On the right, you will find "palette" - edit it and replace it with the palette you want to use. I'm inserting:

#070736364242:#DCDC32322F2F:#858599990000:#B5B589890000:#26268B8BD2D2:#D3D336368282:#2A2AA1A19898:#EEEEE8E8D5D5:#00002B2B3636:#CBCB4B4B1616:#58586E6E7575:#65657B7B8383:#838394949696:#6C6C7171C4C4:#9393A1A1A1A1:#FDFDF6F6E3E3

Then I went to "background" and I changed it to #00002B2B3636. Then I edited both "cursor-color" and "foreground" to #838394949696. Also, this is a personal preference, but I also changed my "opacity" to 100.

To conclude, here's a screenshot of my terminal alongside my settings: (click on the image to view a bigger version)

I'd like to thank Tom for giving me his color scheme, which admittedly looks really nice!

@meskarune
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Are the colors listed in order with gsettings?

"black,red,green,yellow,blue,magenta,cycan,white,bright-black,bright-red,bright-green,bright-yellow,bright-blue,bright-magenta,bright-cyan,bright-white" ?

@christiansalazar
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My bash (thanku guys).

#!/bin/bash

# what is for: elementary.os color scheme for terminal.
# 1) build a color theme, choose config name "terminator", http://ciembor.github.io/4bit
# 2) sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

p="#000000:#c86657:#57c866:#b9c857:#6657c8:#c857b9:#57b9c8:#c2c2c2:#3a3a3a:#e6b9b2:#b2e6b9:#dfe6b2:#b9b2e6:#e6b2df:#b2dfe6:#ffffff"
f="#f2f8d3"
b="#06142d"

gsettings set org.pantheon.terminal.settings palette "$p"
gsettings set org.pantheon.terminal.settings foreground "$f"
gsettings set org.pantheon.terminal.settings background "$b"

@Rashidwi
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Rashidwi commented Mar 3, 2018

Is there a way to set the border colour? I prefer a black background to reduce glare, but my screen background is also black, so I can't see where the edges of terminal are...

@trongthanh
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In latest pantheon terminal (5.3+), its gsettings path has changed, moved to:

io.elementary.terminal.settings

Here's my gist to update pantheon terminal with Oceanic Next theme: https://git.io/fxa7z (with instructions to use other existing themes as well)

@misterunknown
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In latest pantheon terminal (5.3+), its gsettings path has changed, moved to:

io.elementary.terminal.settings

That's the information I searched for. Thanks!

@TBurchfield
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For right now I have a work around of throwing compton -c 0.95 in my .bashrc, but what might I do if this didn't work for me?
It seems as though it tries to open transparently for a moment, then something else sets it to opaque. How might I figure out where this setting was overruled?

@brcmesquita
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brcmesquita commented Jul 28, 2020

If you like Night Owl theme:

sudo apt install -y dconf-tools
  
gsettings set io.elementary.terminal.settings palette '#011627:#EF5350:#22da6e:#addb67:#82aaff:#c792ea:#21c7a8:#ffffff:#575656:#ef5350:#22da6e:#ffeb95:#82aaff:#c792ea:#7fdbca:#ffffff'
  
gsettings set io.elementary.terminal.settings background '#011627'

gsettings set io.elementary.terminal.settings foreground '#d6deeb'

gsettings set io.elementary.terminal.settings cursor-color '#7e57c2'

@zavidnyi
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Here is a working script that allows you to change themes:
https://gist.github.com/TheZavid/d143fad82a38a21111dc48eb2bef58ba
Cheers ;)

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